The Invention of Bing Crosby
he raised an unparalleled $14,500,000 in war bonds. As an innovator of musical technology, he was the first to use THE the microphone as a musical instrument (leading one critic to observe, “he sang to you, not at you”); the first to pre record on radio; and the first to record ont ape—an inven INVENTION tion he helped finance. Even his leisure pursuits made history: he created the first celebrity p ro-am golf champi onship and was the central figure in the development of the OF BING Del Mar racetrack in Southern California. All of which directly underscores the irony inherent in one of his least known yet most prescient achievements. Crosby was the first American singer to actively invent a CROSBY persona—a part-real and part-fabricated character, pol ished with the detail worthy of a novelist. Comedians like by Gary Giddins Jack Benny or Laurel and Hardy had previously invented personae using their own names, and nightclub singers created personalities suitable to their performances. But Bing Crosby accumulated more unbroken statistics than Crosby prefigured the postures and attitudes of rock by any other figure in pop music history. Unrivaled in the sheer presenting the illusion of a figure no different in song than number of his studio recordings, his discography included in life. 368 charted singles under his own name and 28 more as It wasn’t just Crosby’s baritone voice, phrasing, range, a sideman. He scored more n umber-one hits (38) than any and articulation of lyrics that sold his songs, but also his other twentieth-century performer, among them the best- personality. Before Frank Sinatra re-created himself as a s elling record of all time, White Christmas. As a movie star, 1950s jet-set swinger or Elvis Presley perfected his pom he ranked as a top box office attraction for 20 years, five padour and sneer or the Beatles settled on cheery irrev times in the number-one slot. He was nominated for an erence and jackets without lapels, Crosby incarnated a Oscar three times (he won for Going My Way) and intro unique temperament in American song—th e everyman duced more Oscar-nominated songs than anyone else. performer, the modern minstrel, friend to all. Crosby was also a major radio star for three decades, The beloved Bing of the Depression and war years practically inventing the modern talk -music-comedy variety was a far cry from the young jazz crooner of Prohibition, hour with the Kraft Music Hall, which he began hosting in who indulged his share of stimulants, both illegal (alco 1936. At the peak of the show’s success, 50 million listen hol) and legal (marijuana), and women (mostly legal). In ers tuned in every week to hear him. During World War II, many respects, an unknowable and private man, Crosby
What’s That Sound? An Introduction to Rock and Its History b by John Covach & Andrew Flory 2 had a live-and-let-live attitude that put him ahead of the Crosby routinely spoke of how idle and lacking in curve when it came to racial and gender politics. But he ambition he was, and media stories played it up. Feeding was hardly a portrait of personal reliability or professional into the fiction were his easy charm and off-h anded way affability. of speaking, careless way of dressing, and cool indepen The Crosby persona was reshaped with the aid of two dence, which came off as admirably aloof and paradoxically close a dvisers—h is wife, Dixie Lee, who threatened to end warm. He didn’t seem to give a damn about Hollywood their marriage if he didn’t stop drinking and take his career propriety. For example, Crosby lost his hair as a young man more seriously; and his record producer, the legendary Jack and wore toupees in movies. Yet he was the only star of his Kapp, who founded Decca Records and convinced Crosby era who didn’t wear one at private parties or when enter that he should not limit himself to the “hip” audience of taining the troops during World War II. He demanded the jazz fans and Broadway habitués. With Kapp’s prodding, maximum number of exterior scenes in his films so that he Crosby’s repertoire grew to encompass more musical could wear a hat instead of the hated “scalp doily.” Even styles than any singer had ever attempted, all handled with his vocal style offered the illusion of effortlessness. It was unpretentious authenticity that won him fans in each field: often said that every man singing in the shower thought he jazz, mainstream pop, Irish and Hawaiian songs, country sounded like Crosby. and western, operetta, French and Spanish songs (he was The success of the Crosby persona may be measured fluent in both languages), waltzes, Christmas carols, even by its incalculable popularity throughout society: young and rhythm and blues (he recorded duets with Louis Jordan). old, men and women, black and white, urban and rural, Yet his persona was that of an incorrigibly lazy man: self- above and below the Mason-D ixon line. But it also con sufficient, unperturbed, shrewd, cool—a grown-up Tom tributed to the ebbing of his success in the rock era, when Sawyer, complete with a pipe, battered hat, mismatched the casual, unperturbed attitude that proved so engaging clothes, and jive lingo. Crosby invented a character so reso during the Depression and war suddenly seemed remote, nant that even those who knew and worked with him had a grandfatherly, safe, and irrelevant. In the 1950s, rock and hard time separating it from the real Bing, though in reality roll changed the nation’s tempo and temperature, but it he was the least lazy man in town. Despite being a ubiqui never changed Bing Crosby. He had grown older while the tous presence in American culture, turning out three films country grew younger. a year (a full-time career by itself), a weekly radio show, and frequent recording sessions, he was known as a guy who Gary Giddins is the author of Bing Crosby: A Pocketful didn’t like to work, preferring to laze around, play golf, and of Dreams, Visions of Jazz, and the textbook Jazz (with hang out at the track. Scott DeVeaux).
What’s That Sound? An Introduction to Rock and Its History b by John Covach & Andrew Flory